Main Characters and Motorcycles
With so many awesome sport bikes out there, it was hard to pick one for my main character, Ian, in THE WRATH OF NIKE. What motorcycle do you choose for a character who: a) can fly, and obviously loves speed, b) keeps a low profile, and c) is 6’ 5” and can easily handle a heavier, torquier bike?
At first, I put him on a Yamaha YZF-R1. Other than the electric blue fairings, it ticked all the boxes. Like anyone else who visits Yamaha’s website, I could rattle off an impressive list of specs describing its 998 cc engine that produces 200 hp and 85 lb-ft of torque. Research can take me pretty far in my writing.
But ultimately, I’m more comfortable writing about things I know. And I have a fond memory associated with the R1.
Romance on an R1
For a brief period while my husband and I were dating, I worked in LA at Marine Turbine Technologies as their exhibit designer and PR liaison while he was finishing his degree at Iowa State. He visited me for spring break, and my friend loaned him his Yamaha YZF-R1. At the time, Dan rode a Honda CBR-1000RR and was more than capable of handling it. Thinking it would be a meaningful place to propose (much of his wooing occurred with me on the back of his bike with my arms wrapped around him), he fired it up and took me to a bike show one glorious sunny afternoon.
Except, instead of showcasing sleek, sexy motorcycles, it was an aftermarket show full of vendors selling junk. Like lime-green LED license plate covers, tacky, silver-spiked accessories, and airbrushed t-shirts of cartoon stunt riders. It was so cheesy, he wisely kept the ring in his pocket.
My proposal ended up happening a few days later at a Japanese jungle garden. So, he still crushed it.
Sense of humor firmly intact, I was happy with the R1 for my character…until I stumbled upon a video of the Hayabusa.
Hayabusa Hype
Ah, the Suzuki Hayabusa. A ridiculously over-the-top 1300 cc sport bike with 200 hp and 115 lb-ft of torque weighing a crushing 580 lbs. One of my coworkers rode one, and – forgive me, ‘Busa fans – despite all the hype, I thought it was hideous and too heavy to maneuver safely. I understand completely that the two are connected: The bulbous tail fairing is to improve its aerodynamics and make it faster; and the huge engine is to make it the fastest street-legal bike in mass production.
I specify “mass production” because as I mentioned, I worked for the manufacturer of the fastest street-legal motorcycle in the world, the MTT Turbine SUPERBIKE, which are made one at a time. That bike has a helicopter engine in it. Seriously, Google it.
But I digress. Before THE WRATH OF NIKE was published, I watched an interview about the major manufacturers forming a “gentleman’s agreement” limiting sport bikes to 300 KPH or less. Suzuki basically gave them the finger and made their racer replica faster, anyway. (I’m paraphrasing.) Not only that, they named it Hayabusa, which means peregrine falcon in Japanese. As in, a bird that eats other birds – like the Honda Blackbird, the (arguably) second-fastest street-legal bike after the ‘Busa.
Rude, but brilliant marketing.
Did I mention Ian is a falcon-shifter?! How could I NOT know that Hayabusa means falcon in Japanese? With a deep sigh of inevitability, I succumbed to Suzuki’s well-deserved hype, hit Ctrl+F to find “R1” all over my manuscript, and gave Ian a ‘Busa with metallic gray fairings and the Japanese character for falcon slashed in pearl black.
It almost makes me want one, myself.